Thursday, December 31, 2009

Screen Printing And Its Impact On Corporate Gift Giving

By Stephen Sung

Screen printing is a technique in which the ink is directly applied to the surface that is to be printed and this surface is called substrate. The image that is to be printed is transferred photographically to the screen in such a way that the areas not be printed is blocked and the fabric is used as a stencil. A roller moves across the screen stencil, pumping ink over the threads of the woven net in the open areas.

A stencil method of printmaking that imposes a design on the screen of silk surface, the ink is forced onto the printing surface through the mesh and the blank areas are covered with an impermeable substance is called silk-screen printing or serigraphs.

The screen printing first appeared in China during the rule of Song dynasty. The Asian countries started using the screen printing process in thirteenth century and advanced it further by combining the screen painting with block printing and paints. In late 1700s, the Europe started using the screen printing process but it gained wider acceptance much later as the silk was not available in the Europe at that time.

The rotary machine was patented by Michael Vasilantone in'60 in the United States to print logos and team information on the bowling garments. It was licensed by different manufacturers to produce screen- prints on the garments like t-shirts, and hats. The screen printing on the garments has become so popular that it accounts for almost half of the screen printing activity going on in the country.

The printing on the canvas with the help of the screen-printing also became popular with the artists. Warhol, Robert Rauschenberg and many other artists have made use of screen-printing on the canvas. The commercial as well as the fine arts industry is using this screen printing industry to increase their profits and they use it to make prints on the CD and DVD covers, t-shirts, hats and also on the metals and many more things.

The first industrial screen printing process was patented in'07 and many years later, John Pilsworth of San Francisco introduced the multi-color printing using the same screen. In this, the different screen areas were blocked for different color inks and a multi-colored image was produced. This technique is popular in printing signs and posters.

Large and small corporate give gifts to their employees and clients in appreciation of their work and also to motivate the employees to perform better. The Corporate gifts are usually screen printed with the company logo and some motivational sentiments. The corporate gifts are given at the time of holidays like Christmas and New Year. There are many different types of corporate gifts like t-shirts, bags, glasses and like. The screen printed t-shirts are also given to the employees during the annual events of the corporate.

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